Friday, January 31, 2014

We have a suspicion that this morning there are hazmat crews
hard at work at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, desperately trying to
remove the stench hanging in the arena after the Washington Capitals turned in
what might have been their worst performance of the season, a 5-2 loss to the
Columbus Blue Jackets.

It was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

If you saw the Caps’ 5-4 overtime win over Buffalo on
Tuesday night, last night was that game without the four-point night from Alex
Ovechkin and late heroics from Mike Green.
As to the latter, Green left the game in the first period after having
his head driven into the glass by the Blue Jacket’s Boone Jenner. Green was face down on the ice for several
moments before skating off on his own.
He did not return to the contest and will be reevaluated in Detroit,
where the club will play this evening.

As for those who remained, they were awful. No one gets a pass on this one. Not the power play, that went 0-for-7 and
allowed a shorthanded goal. Not the top
line, which managed three shots on goal for the night. Not the second line, which had eight shots on
goal, but no points. Not the defense,
which once more decided to play the “hunt and peck” method of standing still
and poking at pucks with their sticks as opponents skated freely around
them. Not Braden Holtby, who seemed to
have the attention span of a three-month old golden retriever in goal.

-- Alex Ovechkin had his first four-point game of the season
on Tuesday. From the “take the good with
the bad” file, he had his first minus-5 game of his career on Thursday, getting
up close and personal looks at all five Columbus goals. Ovechkin (minus-17) is tied for 802nd
of 817 skaters in plus-minus. Geez, folks…sure,
the plus-minus is a stat that has fallen out of favor, but c’mon. He was plus-2 for a ghastly team that finished
27th in the league in standings points his rookie season. Oops…they’re tied for 23rd right
now.

-- Ovechkin’s night was odd in another respect. He skated only 18 shifts. Still, he logged more than 21 minutes of ice
time. Why?...

-- The Caps were 0-for-7 on the power play (for Ovechkin,
that meant 1:25 of ice time per power play).
That makes it 0-for-8 and 0-for-7 wrapped around a 2-for-3 against the
worst team in the league starting their backup goaltender. Everything is broken on this team right now.

-- Well, maybe not the penalty kill (whodathunkit?!). The
Caps were 7-for-7, making it 13 for their last 14 dating back to the second
period of their 2-1 loss to New Jersey last Friday.

-- Mike Green was the only Caps defenseman not to be on ice
for a goal. But you probably figured
that out, seeing how he had only 5:48 of ice time before he left the game.

-- Eric Fehr led the team in shots? Am I reading that right? Hey, at least he scored.

-- Possession Bizarro World… Caps had Corsi-for percentage
at even strength overall of 50.9. Their
Fenwick-for was 41.0.

-- This game got away from the Caps early. How do we know this? There were only 13 Fenwick events in 5-on-5
close score situations (and Columbus had eight of them). Not much “close score” action there.

-- If Ovechkin had a bad game, what adjective can one
conjure up for Marcus Johansson’s? He
was on ice for the last four Blue Jacket goals (he missed out on the shortie
that started the evening). No shots, no
shot attempts, no hits, no takeaways, and he lost two of three draws. If the meek shall inherit the earth,
Johansson is emperor of the planet on that performance.

-- Which loops us back to the first line overall. For the night, 11 shot attempts. Ovechkin had ten of them. Think too much offense is being stuffed into
Ovechkin’s side of the ice?

-- Tom Wilson…7:14 of ice time, four hits, one fight, no
points, no shots, one shot attempt. Tell
me, how has this young man grown as a hockey player this season? Is he a more rounded player than he was on
Opening Night? Has he expressed parts of
his game that we didn’t see in early October?
Or is it, hit, fight, get off the ice, repeat?

-- At least Joel Ward pulled into a tie for sixth in
shorthanded goals this season (2).

But for the sheer mediocrity of the Metropolitan Division,
you could start working on those pithy phrases to describe a season
wasted. But the Caps are still –
improbably, amazingly, criminally – only two points out of a playoff spot. But they have lost consecutive games to
Columbus by a combined 10-3 margin. They
allowed a pair of goals in the first period of both games and were outscored by
a 7-2 margin in the first two periods of the two games. They haven’t been nail-biters.

And now it’s on to Detroit, a team having troubles of its
own. The Red Wings are 3-4-1 in their
last eight games and, if the playoffs started today, would be sitting at
home. What is their problem?...

-- They can’t score (21st in scoring offense)

-- They don’t defend all that well (tied for 14th
in scoring defense)

-- Their 5-on-5 play is mediocre (16th in the
league with a 0.99 goals for/goals against ratio)

-- The power play isn’t powerful (22nd in the
league)

-- They don’t play from ahead enough (only 20 times in 53
games have they led at the first intermission, only 19 times have they led
after the second)

-- They finish poorly (54 third period goals, eighth most in
the league)

If the Caps win both games against the Red Wings in this
weekend's home-and-home, they can pass the Red Wings and put as many as three
points between the teams. If they lose
them both, they could find themselves right at .500 in standings points and
might feel the hot breath of the New York Islanders right behind them in the
race for seventh…yes, seventh place in the division.

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